


My Otter Penguin

by DeathjunkE



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Familial Relationships, Gen, Hints of Toph/Sokka, I dont like Avatar: legend of Kora but Lin Bei Fong was too much of a Badass to Ignore, Lin Beifong as a little girl, Soka is Toph's BabyDaddy, Sokka is totally Lin's Father, Sokka was a rolling stone, Toph is a single mom because she wants to be, post 100 years war, this just happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 08:54:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1092004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathjunkE/pseuds/DeathjunkE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your mother… Toph is a very independent person.” Lin felt guilty for mentioning anything because now Sokka had that look on his face. His eyes flickered down and his smile was soft and sad. Lin turned on her seat, away from the mirrors of her vanity into his arms. “If she feels a need for companionship, she seeks it out."</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Otter Penguin

There were footsteps in the hall. They weren’t Mama’s footfalls were heavy and you could hear the thud of flesh with each stride. Mama stepped hard to create vibrations, so that she could navigate her way through the twisting corridors of the palace. The footsteps she was listening to were lighter, with more of a quick footed bounce to them. Water tribesmen walked like that, Lin had learned long ago—when she was small enough to sit in Mama’s lap and listened to stories of their adventures.

“They walk like birds —like the ground under their feet will disappear as soon as they take a step. It’s stupid, the ground doesn’t move, not unless it’s sand. Never go into the sand, it’s dangerous.” Mama had lectured so long ago.

Lin smiled, dropped her hair brush to the side and slipped off of her bed, her hair a thick dark curtain of sound behind her. Water tribe steps in this wing of the castle meant one thing and one thing only. Lin poked her head out of her bedroom door and waved at the man approaching.

“Sokka!” Lin pushed the heavy stone slab of a door out of the way and ran to the man who knelt and held out his arms for her. “Are you staying?” She asked as he lifted her off of the ground and into his arms. 

“Hello my Otter Penguin.” Sokka tucked some loose hair behind Lin’s ear and pressed his lips to her cheek twice before pressing his nose between her hairline and her ear and sniffing lightly. “It’s good to see you. I’m not staying long, just for the night before I go back to republic city. I was running an errand for Aang up to the north pole.”

“I don’t want you to go. You never stay long enough.”

“I know, I know. But soon you and your mother will come to the republic for a few months, and then we can see each other all the time.” Sokka carried Lin back to her room and set her down at the vanity once more. “Tomorrow is the Freedom Day Festival, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Lin grumbled as she dragged the brush through her hair and frowned at her reflection. “I have no idea how to do anything with this. It’s a nightmare!” Lin grabbed at her hair and pulled sharply, not even bothering to wince.

“Let go, let me have your brush… the comb too.” Sokka dragged the brush through Lin’s thick hair with infinite patience, gently teasing out the tangles and gnarls before parting her hair into sections. He looked down at her head, eyes focused as he wove small flat braids along the front of her scalp. There was a comfortable silence between them, Lin sat quiet and relaxed as sokka’s hands worked through her hair. The clock’s ticks echoed through the room, not quite disturbing the peace.

“How do you know how to do this so well?” Lin asked as the watched his dark hands move through her hair gracefully, parting, pulling twisting and plaiting her long thick hair into some elaborate style. “Mama doesn’t event know how.”

“Your mama never bothered to learn how.” His voice was thick and comforting, “When she was small she had attendants and maids. Then when she left to travel with Aang, Katara and I, She kept it swept up in a bun. On festival days, Katara would do her hair. If they were fighting, then I would.” 

Lin watched in the mirror as his hands pinned her carefully twist curls in place. Tomorrow before the grand ceremonies of Ba Sing Se began she would pull the pins free and her hair would drop into neat coils down her shoulder blades and the plaited front would remain neat and flat, perfect to slide her jeweled combs into.

“Sokka…”

“Yes Lin?” He looked up and her eyes in the mirror as he fixed the last pin curl into place.

“Will you please talk to Mama tonight,” Lin bit her bottom lip and curled her fingers in her night gown. “Tomorrow is the festival and she’s going to do important things, but I want her to have some fun too. She should go out and meet someone.”

“Your mother… Toph is a very independent person.” Lin felt guilty for mentioning anything because now Sokka had that look on his face. His eyes flickered down and his smile was soft and sad. Lin turned on her seat, away from the mirrors of her vanity into his arms. “If she feels a need for companionship, she seeks it out. Toph doesn’t like people who pander to her because of her name, her status or her friendship with Avatar Aang or Fire-lord Zuko. Toph doesn’t like when people try to use or swindle her because she’s bind and they thin she doesn’t know better.” 

“She’s always so lonely when you go down to the republic…” Lin wrapped her hair tightly with a silk scarf and clamored in to her bed. “I get lonely too.”

“I’m sorry, Lin.” His face was sad again, like he felt guilt pressing on his back. They way Lin felt the day she had hid in the garden sand box to hide from her mother and sent the woman into an fear fueled frenzy thinking Lin had been kidnapped.

“That’s okay, Sokka. I know that you’re busy.” Lin wrapped her fingers around Sokka’s callused ones and took pleasure in the simple contact. Her family was small, It was only her, Momma and some times Sokka. 

Sokka came to visit all the time but he didn’t live with them, He didn’t really live anywhere. When Sokka stayed in the earth kingdom he stayed in the family wing of the Gaoling manor with them. Sokka had a wing in the Avatar Tower in Republic City, a house in the South Pole, a shack in the northern parts of the fire nation and rooms in the palace of the water tribe. 

“I’m never too busy for you.”

Lin tipped her head up demanding a kiss, and as always Sokka didn’t disappoint.

“I love you dearly. Goodnight my otter penguin.”

“I love you too, Good night. Thank you.”


End file.
